The One I Love Best
by Chelley Angel
Summary: [Oneshot] A glimpse into Naruto's childhood and how his relationship with Sasuke has evolved from Naruto's point of view as he chases Sasuke before their battle at the Valley of the End.


**Hey! Chelley Angel here, with my first Naruto fanfiction. If you're a reader of Let it Out… don't worry. I'm working on it. The next chapter has been dragging on for ages, and it's killing me, too, so I'm awfully sorry.**

**Summary: Naruto is chasing after Sasuke, right before their battle at the Valley of the End, and he reflects on their relationship. If you haven't gotten that far in the series yet, this has spoilers in it. **

**Disclaimer: Me saying that I own Naruto is like saying finals aren't pure hell. It just isn't right, darlings. **

**Enjoy!**

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

It was you, you know. I don't think you remember, but that doesn't matter. _I _remember, and I will always remember, and so long as I do, you don't have to.

It was when we were young, and you still had a family. I remember that, because you were always smiling and you were _so_ friendly to everyone.

Even me.

Even the outcast, who everyone else avoided. The one who no one else bothered to talk to.

You always had a smile for even me. I remember.

It was you who taught me how to _feel._ It doesn't matter that you didn't know that you were doing it. It doesn't even matter that you _still_ don't know that you did.

Because you did it.

_And I love you for it._

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

We were young and naïve and just starting out at the ninja academy. We were all so excited to finally be able to learn how to use our _chakra_.

_Chakra_ meant _jutsu_. _Jutsu_ meant magic. Magic meant power. And we all knew, even at that young age, that power was _good_.

For me, it was my first step to becoming Hokage.

The excitement waned, though. It was too hard. We tried and struggled and failed to do the exercises properly, and then we tried again. And again. And failed still.

And then _you_ did it. You succeeded. You felt your _chakra_ and gathered it to you, and the air around you changed. The teachers praised you, the other students cheered, and you beamed, saying, "Just wait until I tell oniisan!"

You were so happy.

I wasn't. You were so perfect at that age, even when you were four years old. Four years old and able to get a hold of your _chakra_.

I _seethed_. It wasn't fair to me. The teachers loved you; our peers adored you. And I wanted to hate you, I really did…

But you alone had a smile for me.

When the rest of us were ordered to keep practicing, I asked the female _sensei_ for help. I've forgotten her name; she didn't matter.

_The fact that I still remember everything about you when we were younger means that **you** matter… you know that, right?_

I seemed to be having a problem. I could feel… something… that felt strong. Strong like how the air around you had felt a few minutes before, but 100 times better. And then there was something duller, like black and white compared to the other power's Technicolor.

I told her how it felt, and she stared at me with fear and something that I didn't recognize in her eyes. Of course, now I know that it was hatred, but my mind didn't process that back then. I was still blissfully ignorant and almost-innocent. "Get away from me," she told me, standing up and then walking away.

In that moment, something inside of me collapsed. There it was again, the thing that _everyone_ did to me. Walk away. Glare. Ignore me. I wasn't good enough to be noticed, and it hurt.

I _would_ become Hokage. Then… _then_ they'd see how wrong they were. What had before been a far-off goal became in that moment something that would consume me.

I closed my eyes again. Well, power was good. I would go for the brighter fire that I could feel.

I pushed and I strained, and I _reached_… but there was something blocking me from that power. Oh _no_. I wasn't going to give in that easily. I kept pushing at the barrier, pushing and pushing, and…

If I had known how to curse then, I would have said something along the lines of: "Shit. Pushed too hard."

_Then there was black_.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

I woke up in the hospital, Iruka-sensei next to me. I should have felt bad about the tears in his eyes, but I was too grateful that they were there. It meant that he, at least, cared about me.

"Naruto," he said, over and over, a few "_baka_"s mixed in here and there, and he just sat there and held me and I sat there, too, tears streaming down my face because _someone was there for me_.

And we sat there. And I felt…

_Loved_.

I don't know how long we sat in silence until the door opened, and _you_ stepped in. You and Iruka-sensei both looked stunned to see someone else there. I don't blame either of you; I myself was surprised to have anyone at all.

Iruka-sensei nodded at you, and left. I remember being surprised that he didn't say anything, but now I think that he might not have trusted himself to speak.

We stared at each other for a minute, you and I. "Hi," you said finally, and sat down where Iruka-sensei had been.

I shrugged. I didn't feel like talking. "Everyone was really worried, you know," you went on.

_Liar_. We both knew that "everyone" in this case really meant no one at all. I let it slide. You could tell me pretty lies if you wanted to; I wasn't going to stop you.

Finally, you got to the point. "If you… if you want help," you said uncertainly, "You know, with feeling your _chakra_… I could, you know… give you a few pointers…"

I remember thinking that something had to be wrong with my ears, because _they_ had started lying to me as well. You, _you_, the head of the class, everyone's idol… offering to help me?

You took your hands in mine. "It's not that hard, really," you told me earnestly. "Come on. Let's try it."

Maybe I was insane at that moment; maybe I was still tired; maybe I wanted to believe that you could help me. Whatever it was because of, I agreed, curling my own fingers around yours tightly.

"Close your eyes," you told me. I obeyed. "Now think of the person that you love the most."

That threw me. My eyes flew open, and I demanded, "Why?"

"Because," you explained, "Ninja fight for the ones that they love. When you gather up your _chakra_, you think of the one you love best." You smiled suddenly, an odd light in your eyes. "I think of oniisan."

That statement made me slightly uncomfortable. No one would ever think of me.

But it made sense. I closed my eyes again, wondering whom to visualize. Iruka-sensei? Well, yes, of course.

I looked at you, then. You were here, too. You were helping me. Why not think of two people?

Sometimes when I think about it, I think that my fingers squeezed yours a little tighter. I don't really know. What I do remember most clearly of all, though, was the emotion that flooded through me like fire and ice and lightning all at the same time.

You and Iruka-sensei believed that I was someone worthy of being talked to.

_And then I felt it._

The fire which I had thought dull before blazed to life. While it still couldn't compare to the other, it felt new, and strong, and it wanted to be used. It wanted me to take it, and hold it, and love it, and cherish it.

And so I gathered it around me, still visualizing your faces, and I held it to me.

It was exhilarating. Not just the amazement of feeling _chakra_ for the first time, but the wrench you two had thrown in my emotions. I had been on the way to despair; can you blame me? Iruka-sensei would no doubt have slowed my descent, but there is only so much an adult can do when a child wants to be accepted by his peers.

I had to let it go after a few moments, exhausted. It took a few tries before my eyelids would obey me and open, but once they did, I looked into your smiling face…

And _cried_.

I remember you looking surprised, but that's about it, because the world had turned blurry and it had started spinning and there was an annoying buzzing in my ears.

When it all calmed down, you were sitting on the hospital bed next to me, peering into my face. "Naruto?" you asked cautiously. "I kind of like it better when you're laughing. Or when you make the rest of us laugh. You're really funny!"

You didn't know what an impact those words had on me. You probably still don't know. That's okay.

_I _know. You called me funny, and to keep from being ignored any longer, I became the class clown. I learned to smile all the time, and to laugh at myself. And because of that, I was almost accepted.

You got up, then, because you were going to be late for dinner and your mother would worry. _You still had a mother to worry about you, then…_

After I left the hospital the following morning, I was different. I would become someone like you, who everyone else admired and looked up to. I would even surpass you and become Hokage. I would do it.

And then a few years later you became cold. It took me a few days to figure out why; people never really talked to me when I wasn't telling a joke. You stopped talking outside of class. You became so frigid, so icy…

And you were still perfect.

_But you never had a smile for anyone anymore. Especially not me._

It was like something in you had died. Well, something in you _had_ died… your childhood innocence. Your laughter. Your friendships withered.

And you had completely forgotten me.

That was all right, just as long as you acknowledged that I existed. Somewhere, my feelings for you began to evolve into something new. Different. I became your rival, saying it to anyone with ears. I would defeat you, I said boastfully, so many times.

And you didn't smile at me, but you smirked that arrogant smirk of yours. I took what I could get.

And when we were both on the same _genin_ Team, we had to work together. You stood up for each other. _You needed me_.

So I'm going to drag you back to Konoha now if it's the last thing I do, Sasuke. I won't let you leave us.

_I won't let you leave me._

And when I summon up my _chakra_ to fight you, know that I'm conjuring up your face in my mind, because you're the one I love best.

**OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

**And that would be The End. My first Naruto fanfiction. I read plenty of them, but I haven't tried my hand at writing one before, so I really hope this one turned out all right. Review!**


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